flowers
by kismet00
Summary: [Kino's Journey] The rule is that a traveler must never interfere with the laws of a country. But what happens when the borders of right and wrong are tested to their limits? What will Kino do when a person's life is in the balance?


Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply. Kino's Journey, also known as Kino's Travels: The Beautiful World, is an anime as well as a series of books. All rights go to its respective creator/owners. 

Author's Notes: 

This story is based off of episode four of Kino's Journey. The series has been released to the US and it is proving to be a good but disturbing work. The premise of the anime is that Kino travels from country to country (cities really) spending three days at each place. Each country has its own rules and a traveler cannot break them. 

One important thing to point out is that a motorrad is a motorcycle that can talk. So Kino is not being crazy, when they converse. I'm also giving away Kino's gender as it was supposed to remain a surprise in the series until the fourth episode. The dialogue won't be exact and some scenes may be out of sequence, but it will get the gist of the episode. I will probably revise this after watching the episode again. It does contain spoilers for the series so read at your own risk.           

**[ flowers**** ]**

_"So it goes."_

-Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut

Red encompassed her vision, surrounded her, and engulfed her entirely. The crimson-red flowers filled every spot of her vision, as she lay on her back, surrounded in a sea of scarlet.  

She sang and the song embraced the world. Every note caressed the blades of grass, touched the flowers in passing and finally escaped into the expansive sky above it. 

It was strange how easily the song spilled forth from the traveler's lips. One note passed another with as much ease as the wind traveled the Earth; with each new note the song transported her closer to something else; something beyond that field of flowers, to a distant, foreign place, tucked behind thought and remembrance. 

Music and memory grew together as the song continued without interruption. 

There was nothing to compete with the song. Her mind was lost in it, and she only had the gentle tussling of the wind on her body to remind her, where she really was. The haunting melody—both sad and hopeful, cut through the silence of the field and lingered in the air as if the notes themselves did not wish to stop. Time seemed to slow, and that moment remained for longer than it should have, but the world would not comply with it, and the time slipped away as the sun shined its warmth from overhead and the clouds drifted lazily into the sky. 

When she stopped, and her song was done to completion, she abandoned herself to her surroundings. The all encompassing blue sky opened itself to her, and the ground with its red flowers supported her.    

And the silence greeted her once more.

The flowers had awoken a memory she had not thought about in a long time. A very long time. Time had blurred the details: erasing faces and names from her mind, rendering clear images to vague fragments of thought and emotion, but she still remembered. It was too important to forget. 

"Encore! Encore!" Hermes chimed, "Na Kino, sing me another round or else…"

Kino smiled as her motorrad insisted that she sing another round or put him upright again. Hermes was always eager to go back on the road, to wherever the wind would take them. 

With arms sprawled to the side, the traveler wasn't much to look at. Kino sported a short haircut and wore a ratty tan overcoat that hid the layers of simple green clothing underneath. It almost made her look like a boy. A belt full of pouches, her hat, and sturdy boots completed the ensemble. She would not stand out in a crowd and it was practical clothing for any traveler. 

Her companion, Hermes the motorrad, was on his side. His weight crushed the flowers beneath him, his headlight pointed in her direction, and his handlebar was tilted slightly upward to accommodate for his somewhat awkward position. Her supplies were stockpiled on top of him and were secured to the back of him. 

It was quiet, save for the wind—and the two were alone in the field. What they saw before them was nothing, save for the sky, the fields and the world itself. 

_Freedom.__ This is freedom.   _

"Okay then, Hermes. Another round."

The song began once more.  

"Na Kino, doesn't this remind you of that time? It was red like that too."

**[the land of adults]**

Rage was the only thing she could remember clearly. It was anger that burned her throat  

She never could quite remember her real name; her given name. She only remembered that it had something to do with a flower's name. It was a name that could easily be changed to an insult. 

_A twist of the words, a jab in the heart._

A single red flower hit her face. The boys on the second story gave her a bunch of funny looks and used that insult by twisting her name. The flower they had thrown at her was her namesake.

The boys laughed and ran off. She gave them a good leer and was about to chase them when the traveler came.

He arrived past the wooden gates that held the inhabitants of the country inside, and looked all about him. The cobble-paved streets ran on to blend with the two story buildings made of the same material. Wood supports accented the houses and businesses. Most were panted in a pale white which was a dull but appropriate color. Some had flower gardens on the second floor, and in all; it was neat, clean, city. 

One building stood out from the rest. Situated on a hillside, the traveler could see it from here. It was an imposing structure, several times larger than any building in the rest of the county. 

It was the most important building of all. 

She watched the traveler approached her. His boots clicked on the pavement and he smiled as he walked. He was wearing a tan overcoat and carried several bags with him. His hair was tied back into a ponytail and his smile grew even warmer as he approached her. "What's your name?"

She pulled her head down in embarrassment. 

He laughed to make up for his mistake and began again. "Sorry it's rude of me to ask. My name's Kino. I travel here and there to different countries and places. I'm trying to see as much of the world as I can."

She blushed and looked up at the strange man. After the boys she hadn't expected to deal with something like this. It wasn't often that strangers would come into the country. There was something different about him. She worded her name to him and he smiled once more. 

"That's a pretty name," he said. "Hey do you know where I can find a place to stay? Hopefully someplace cheap too?"

She brightened up immediately. Her family owned an inn. "I know a place and it's cheap." she took his hand. "Here it's this way." 

The little girl with the long hair and simple dress led the somewhat scruffy traveler through the city and toward her home. The traveler noticed that all of the homes took on an old English style of design. They were elegant, but this town seemed almost too perfect. As he traveled deeper inside the heart of the country it was that one building in the distance which continued to draw his eye. 

"I suppose your country takes pride in its medical services," Kino said, pointing to the building on the top of the hill. 

"Yes, everyone undergoes an operation when they turn twelve," she replied.

His eyebrows perked up at that response, but by that time they had reached the inn. Her parents, before noticing their entrance, seemed to be a bit bored, but once they caught sight of the visitor they sprung from their seats to welcome him. 

She introduced him to her parents and the usual greetings were given. The place too—was neat and clean, but it seemed as if he was going to be the only guest at this inn.

"How long will you be staying sir?" Her father asked Kino. 

"Three days and two nights." 

**[…]**

The traveler quickly situated himself in his room and the girl finished her chores about the house. Their paths crossed when he found her pulling another red peg out of a calendar. 

The calendar held a sort of childish charm. It was decorated with trains and contained small, round, holes where the other pegs would go into. A small basket of red pegs lay just bellow the calendar. 

"What's this?" the traveler questioned. 

She smiled at him. "This shows how long it is until my twelfth birthday."

He glanced at the colorful calendar and saw that there were only two pegs left. "Is your twelfth birthday special?"

"In this country when you're twelve you become an adult and get a job." She looked up at him, "Actually I wanted to become a singer."

"I think you'd become a wonderful one— "

"No." she interrupted him, and gave him a weak smile. "Since my parents own an inn, I must follow in their footsteps, and eventually take it over for them, but I suppose it will be all right,"

The conversation ended at that point. The traveler said his goodbyes to her so he could explore her country. 

**[..]**

When she went to school, her thoughts were still focused on the strange traveler and her impending birthday. She had at first been excited to turn twelve, but the more she thought about it, the less friendly the prospect of becoming an adult seemed. Her teacher was of no help either. 

"When you turn twelve," he told the class with a big smile and a laugh, "all of you will become an adult. Enjoy yourselves while you can, because being an adult means hard work and responsibility. You'll do things that you don't want to do because you're an adult.  Don't worry though. You'll get an operation that let's you become an adult overnight. Even with all of the responsibility and work you can be happy at any job you do. Just look at me!"

The class laughed, but she remained silent.  

**[..]**

The rest of the day was a blur as she did her normal routine. It was the better part of the afternoon when she found Kino out in the alley by the inn. This time he came with a beat-up old bike by his side. 

She greeted him with a smile and looked down at his new acquisition, "It's a motorrad," Kino explained to her. "The people down at the shop gave it to me for free to fix it up as I wished. I guess no one else wanted to bother with it. Look I bought new parts so I can fix him up." He lifted a bag of parts to show her.

"Will you travel with him then?" She asked curiously.  

He flashed another smile and explained again. "With a motorrad I can travel much faster. I'll make a contract with him. You see the rider provides the balance, and the motorrad provides the speed. Apart he cannot move," he gestured to the motorrad, "and I cannot see as much of the world. That is why I'm fixing him up."

As he repaired the motorrad, she looked at him carefully. 

"What's your job?" she asked him.

"I'm a traveler. I see the world and stay at each place for three days."

"That's not real work. Do you like it?" She said scrutinizing him carefully. 

"Yes, I would say that I enjoy it very much."

"You're not an adult then. Adults have to work and do things that they don't even want to do." She stated. 

Kino laughed at the girl and put down his tools. "Yes well I suppose by your definition I'm not an adult, but I'm not a child either." He paused and then looked at her, "What happens during this operation you get when you turn twelve?"

"You go to the hospital," she pointed to the building on top of the hill, "and there you get an operation so you can become an adult. After that operation you can be happy doing whatever jobs you have."

"Are you sure you want this?" He asked her calmly. 

"Everyone gets it."

There was a pause of silence, but before long the traveler continued to fix the motorrad, and she watched him do his work. 

The conversation drifted to other things, her country, his travels, but her heart wasn't fully in it. Her head was currently occupied by other thoughts and ideas at the moment.

Here was a man that loved to do what he did without an operation. It wasn't a real job, but he wasn't a child. She wondered what made an adult an adult, and here she was, with only two days left before her birthday. 

**[…]**

Later in the night, she passed her calendar and paused at the sight. The red pegs, or rather, the lack of them caught her attention. After a few moments she pulled herself away from the sight and went to bed.

**[…]**

The next day turned out to be no better than the day before it. She awoke to some banging and it took her a moment to realize that the traveler was still fixing the motorrad. The traveler had greeted her in the morning and she responded happily. He was different—a delight to be around, but there were other things distracting her. He again went on his own path and she on her own. 

When it was time to take out another wooden peg from her calendar, she stopped. Today _seemed_ different. As she grasped the wooden peg, it felt much heavier than it should have. Instead of feeling like a piece of wood, she swore it felt like lead. She stared at the little red peg for a few moments longer before she threw it into the bin, which collected them, and ran down the stairs and out into the streets.

Never had she felt so confused or torn. She always knew she was going to get an operation. But why was she feeling this way now?

As she wandered about the bustling street, by chance, she met the boy who had taunted her the day before. He was wearing his best clothing and his parents held his hands as they walked up the long winding path to the hospital. It was his birthday. His _twelfth_ birthday. 

The boy noticed her looking at him, stuck out his tongue at her, and kept it that way before the distance prevented him from doing it any further.

She replied with a similar face, but then stopped after a few moments.  

Would he be the same person tomorrow?

**[…]**

It wasn't until evening when she saw Kino again. The man had completed fixing the motorrad and was now working on polishing it up. He was content with his work and he greeted her as she came by. 

"I think he needs a name. Do you have any suggestions?" Kino asked. 

She paused for a moment and said, "What's the name of an old friend you had?"

He thought for a moment. "Oh yes. That's a good idea. I had an old friend named Hermes."

"Hermes is a good name." she replied. 

He smiled and continued his work on the motorrad. While he did this, he sang a song. It was a song of hope and sadness, and everything that needed to be said. 

As he sang it through the night, and she listened, the song slowly engraved itself onto her heart. 

Unbeknownst to her it would leave a mark there forever. 

**[…]**

She rose early that morning and picked out another wooden peg from her calendar. It was the last one. Today was her birthday. She was twelve. Tomorrow she would have her operation and everything would change. 

When she walked outside she saw Kino, packed and ready to go with Hermes. The once beat up, piece of junk, looked as if it was new. Kino had done a good job, but she had forgotten. He was going to leave here. Forever.

He greeted her with a smile, as if everything in the world was alright.

"Are you going so soon?" she asked Kino sadly. 

"I'm afraid so," he replied, "If I stayed I wouldn't be a traveler anymore."

She accepted his words, and her soul felt as if another weight had been added to it. She did not keep her focus as he said his goodbyes to her. It would seem that this was her last time seeing this odd but wonderful person. It made her sad to see him leave. 

The man smiled once more, and slowly made his way for the gate.

Once he left her view, she made a decision that would change her life. She only had a little bit of time and she would do something different, something drastically different.

She found her parents outside on the street, and she gained what little courage was left in her. It was the courage that the stranger had given to her, and with hesitation and pause she finally asked quietly, "Would it be alright if I didn't have the operation tomorrow?"

Her mother gained a look of frozen horror on her face, and her father was absolutely furious. His brows pushed together, his eyes left wide open, and his mouth in a seething rage began to spout the words that hit the innermost being of her soul.  

"How DARE you! You DEFFECTIVE child! We RAISED you and now, and NOW you DON'T want the operation?" He shouted. A crowd was beginning to gather and he continued unawares, "Now WHO did this? WHO put these, these THOUGHTS into your head?" He looked at his cowering daughter and then spotted Kino a short distance away, "YOU it was YOU who did this!!!"

She cringed and muttered things she hoped would turn away this rage, and put everything back the way it was before; but time could not be reversed, and the situation continued to worsen.

Kino approached them. The crowd seemed to swell around him, rippling with murderous intent. She feared for his life. 

A passing inspector stopped. "What's this now?"

"Oh.. oh. Inspector!" her father laughed, "Well, you see my silly daughter does not want to get the operation done. I don't know what to do, and _this_ man is the one that put these thoughts into her!"

The inspector looked at the situation for a moment and then talked to her, "Why don't you want an operation? The government created it so that everyone can be a productive adult. Are you going to throw that away?"    

She didn't respond to him.

The inspector looked toward the crowd once more and addressed them all, "Now we are all reasonable adults here, this matter may be settled in a reasonable manner. As for you," the inspector began to address Kino.

"What? Are you going to kill me?" Kino asked. 

"No, no. Nothing of the sort. What type of barbarians do you think we are? This is a land of adults, and all matters must be settled reasonably. You sir, must follow our laws and I will guarantee your safety until you leave this country. But I do suggest that you leave." As soon as the inspector finished his words, the crowd seemed to relax visibly. 

She had calmed down somewhat from the inspector's presence. Kino would not be hurt. But her life was rapidly falling apart and everything felt as if she was in a very bad dream, that hard as she tried, she could not awaken from. 

It was no dream and it was only going to get worse.  

While the crowd had become calmer, her father at one point had disappeared into the house and returned with a long, sharp, _kitchen knife_. The blade glistened with the sun and his expression was completely changed from before. 

She froze as the ridiculousness of the situation revealed itself to her. This couldn't be happening! But still she wondered what her father could possibly do with that knife. Surely he couldn't…. 

Kino frowned once more and raised his guard.

The inspector talked again. "You see, children are a parents' property. If by chance that property is defective they have every right to destroy it." 

The crowd agreed to this sentiment and egged her father on. They cheered, and yelled, and screamed for her death. And somehow the world thought this was right and the sun shined and the sky was blue and…

They wanted him to kill her. 

They wanted him to kill her.

They wanted him to kill her. 

Father, father why?

Thiscouldn'tbehappeninghowcouldit?

She froze. And the world itself seemed to shatter. 

Her father looked at her with a smile, her mother held tightly onto his arm. The wind stopped blowing. All sound was lost to her. Her life was over. 

She was going to die. 

Her father would plunge that knife into her and kill her and… and…

The events unfolded slowly, surreally. The sun was bright, the sky was clear as her father gave her a grin, gripped the knife with both of his hands, and lunged toward her. He ran with his full weight, without regret, without sadness, he aimed toward his daughter's heart.

He ran and ran, and the footsteps came closer and closer…

And then…

And then….

A river of crimson appeared. Red as the flowers of her namesake. Scarlet hues introduced into the drab world…

The knife sank into Kino's heart and the red lifeblood emerged, and spread from the knife that sucked it greedily. The red came out in torrents, pooling around him, and drained all the life from him. Everything stopped. 

Time stopped. 

For a moment. She was in perpetual state of shock and horror. She was frozen. This was not real. The red. The red which was so beautiful and so wrong, red as the flowers of her name.  

Time resumed again.

The man, who saved her life by jumping in the path of the blade, fell to the ground lifeless as doll. There was a small smile plastered to his face. It was his last expression that would follow him into the afterlife. 

Kino. 

Kino was dead. 

She was in shock, she was more than in shock, but the crowd was too. 

The persons who had collected themselves to watch the event looked bewildered and lost. Her father eventually looked up to the inspector. 

"Wh-what do we do now. I mean how could anyone guess that someone would run into the path of a blade?" He asked him. "Tell us what to do inspector," he looked like a lost lamb, "I, I don't know—"

"Enough," the inspector stopped him from speaking anymore; "First of all, we shall treat this as an accident as any reasonable adult would never run into the path of a blade." The crowd murmured agreement and looked a bit happier. 

"But what do we do now?" her father asked again.

"Now," the inspector said, drawing the word out, "now you shall simply pull out the knife from the man's chest and try again."

"Oh right, right!" Her father laughed, "How silly of me. Pull the blade out!"

And the crowd now appeased, went on to help her father pull the blade out of Kino. The crowd began shouting encouragement as the knife proved a bit difficult to remove. Her father had probably gotten it wedged between Kino's ribs. 

As this was happening she made no movement to run away, nor did she try to defend herself. Her father was going to kill her and there wasn't anyone left to save her. No one left to save her and… and… she didn't want to die.

She tried to back away from the crowd as far as she could, and she found herself bumping against Kino's motorrad, Hermes.

The crowd roared as her father finally pulled the blood-soaked blade from the corpse. He was preparing to run at her again.

_What are you going to do now?_

"I don't know." She whispered.

_If you stay here you'll die._

"but…"

_Do you want to die?_

"It's better than becoming one of them."

_Let me give you another option. Let's escape!_

"What?"

_Do you know how to ride a bike?_

"Yes but…"

_"RUN! Do it now!_

And her father rushed with all of his might and his blade hit metal, not flesh. 

Somehow she had managed to scramble on top of the motorrad, and her father had only hit the motorrad. 

In a rush she released the kickstand and sped away. The voice told her what to do; it was the same voice that had called to her, to tell her to run away. The comforting voice talked with a purring, rumbling alto tone—it taught her how to turn on the motorrad and how to change gears. Her country zoomed by her and she quickly learned how to turn and accelerate. 

Houses and people were blurring with the speed she was traveling at. She was running away from everything she ever knew. She could no longer see her parents or the persecuting crowd. The world zoomed by her. Was this what he felt?

She focused on another turn and barely managed to avoid the obstacles in her path. The buildings appeared to merge into a single lifeless entity, where one started and the other ended was lost to her. She was simply traveling too fast. The wind blew back her hair, rippled her clothing; caressed her with a cool touch.

She was the wind.

"Stop her! Stop her at once!!!" The order was cried out from behind her. 

The wooden gate began to lower and she began to panic. 

_Don't worry, we just have to change into sixth gear—_

And the voice told her what to do and she picked even more speed and the gate rushed closer… closer…

The wood splintered all around her as she zoomed through the gate. Shock once again entered her mind. 

She was outside. 

She was outside her country.

The green fields welcomed her, and the sky, in all of its glory, was present. She saw things she had never imagined. So beautiful it was all so… and she was so small compared to the world. 

She soaked up each new view, each new turn. 

She followed the road that led away from her country

And she ran.

And she ran.

And she ran.

Until she could run no more. 

She lost her balance and the motorrad and rider tumbled into the field of red flowers. She picked herself up and looked around. 

It was a sea of them. They were the flowers of her namesake and she laughed at it all. The sky was a pure blue, and the ground beneath her a vibrant red. It was nothing that she had seen before, and she became transfixed by the sight. 

"That wasn't too nice." 

She looked up as she noticed the familiar voice that helped her escape. 

She looked closely at the motorrad and said, "Oh I'm so sorry! So it was you that helped me out? Thank you for getting me out of there."

"Oh no it was no problem," the motorrad replied, "Could you imagine what they would have done with me? I was in trouble back there too."

"Say, by the way, what's my name?" the motorrad asked.

She thought for a moment and then remembered, "It's Hermes, a name of an old friend."

"Hermes," the motorrad repeated. "I like it. And who would be so mean, as to make me fall like that?"

She looked at the motorrad and started to speak her name, but stopped. She turned to see her country's walls which was a mere dot on the horizon. 

"Kino…" she murmured. Wasn't Hermes his bike?

"Oh Kino, say how about picking me up?" The motorrad sounded a bit annoyed.

"Kino?" her voice sounded frightened.

"That's your name isn't it? Is it something else? You said it was. I asked who would be so mean as to make me fall and you said 'Kino'," Hermes paused. 

She reflected for a moment and looked at the red flowers and at her country in the distance.    

Smiling, she faced the motorrad and responded as truthfully as her soul would allow.

"I'm Kino!"

**[ kismet**** ]**


End file.
